T Dog’s Think Tank: The White Sox uses the CBS Chicago blueprint for its Fan Alienation Plan

Chicago’s South Side MLB team resembles CBS Chicago’s ratings disasters in every way possible  In the early 2000s, then-Chicago Tribune media critic Steve Johnson noted the management at CBS-owned WBBM-TV implemented what he called a “Viewer Alienation Plan”, a series of bad decisions repelling viewers from the station throughout the 1990s, including tabloid newscasts, awful anchor pairings, and a deer-in-headlight […]

Rush Limbaugh dies

Conservative talk show host revitalized AM band One of radio’s biggest stars has passed on.  Rush Limbaugh died Wednesday morning at the age of 70 from lung cancer.  While he’ll be known for revitalizing talk radio, he’ll also be known for the divisive rhetoric he pioneered.  While conservative talkers were nothing new in radio (Howard Miller, Gary Dee, etc.), it […]

The T Dog Media TV Hall of Shame

No one expected CNN’s Chicagoland to be a love letter to the city – but no one expected it to be a Rahm infomercial either. A critical and ratings flop, Chicagoland is the one of TV’s lowlights in 2014. Recently, the prime-time portion of The Simpsons marathon on FXX attracted more viewers than Chicagoland did. (As of May 2018, the […]

Bears bomb on field and in ratings

  If you thought the Chicago White Sox had a bad season…you ain’t seen nothing yet Maybe we should send Chris Sale to cut up some Bears jerseys in the locker room. Monday night certainly wasn’t football night for Bears fans as the team put up the worst performance in at least two seasons as the team was blown out […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: Ramonski Luv out at Soul 106.3

WBBM news woes continue; CBS criticized for Mentalist reruns to replace Letterman; former Chicago FM call letters find a new home – As first reported by Robert Feder Wednesday, Soul 106.3 (WSRB) evening radio personality Ramonski Luv was released by the station after only a few months on the air. Luv, whose real name is Ramon Wade, was paired with […]

End of an era: David Letterman exits late-night TV

Wednesday not only marks the end of another sweeps period, but also the end of an era. 68 year-old David Letterman hangs up his mic tonight, after 33 years in the late fringe daypart – 22 of those years at CBS, where he moved to in August 1993. The Indianapolis-born comedian went from bagging groceries to a weatherman for the […]

The return of Arsenio Hall

Bethenny, The Test also make their debuts in syndication today When Arsenio Hall debuted his late-night show in syndication on January 3, 1989, consider this: Johnny Carson was still the king of late-night at NBC; David Letterman still appealed to a cult audience; CBS was about to debut Pat Sajak as a late night talk show host; and ABC and […]

The T Dog Media TV Hall Of Shame is back…with monkeys!

              The face of TV has changed in the last 40 years…. “Me and The Chimp” (left) to “Animal Practice”. Wow, what an improvement! The hollowed halls of TV badness is back open for business! In the first update in over a year, a whopping 18 21 shows are being inducted into The T […]